UAE gas supply is 2o% below peak demand

Abu Dhabi: When summer temperatures soar and power stations work at full capacity, gas supplies in the the UAE are around 20 per cent below demand, an official said on Wednesday.

Power demand and the population in the UAE are rising 10 per cent to 13 per cent per year, Khalid Al Awadi, gas operations manager at retailer Emirates General Petro-leum Corporation (Emarat) told an energy conference.

When air-conditioning units worked at full blast across the country last summer, gas demand peaked at around 5.5 billion cubic feet per day (cfd), a billion cfd above current maximum supply of 4.5 billion cfd, he said.

"The peak shortfall is about one billion cfd per day, which is being met with expensive diesel oil," he told reporters. Apart from burning oil products such as diesel, industrial users also turned to coal in some parts of the UAE last year.

Gas demand during summer months is around 40 per cent above the annual average, he said.

UAE gas demand for power generation and water desalination plants was expected to double over the next 10 years, he said.

In addition, more demand was expected from cement and fertiliser manufacturers, aluminium and steel smelters and other industrial users, he added.

Abu Dhabi will add around 10,000 megawatts of generation capacity over the next five years, he said. Dubai will add around 5,000 megawatts by 2010.

The UAE is looking at nuclear and solar power and development of its sour gas reserves to meet future energy demand. If all those sectors are developed, the country could close its gas supply shortfall by 2020, Awadi said.

If not, gas shortages could cost the country up to Dh500 million per day by 2020, he said.

Current gas supplies are just over two billion cfd from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), another two billion cfd from Dolphin Energy which imports from Qatar, and around 300 million cfd from Dubai, he said.

Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah also have small amounts. Adnoc said on Tuesday it planned to boost its supply to 3.6 billion cfd in 2009 from around two billion cfd at present.